Plea
by BF110C4
Summary: Upon discovery that the bully who had been tormenting her is the hero Shadow Stalker Taylor became disillusioned of the world of Capes before actually entering it. Willing to give one last chance to humanity and the system she goes to the heart of the PRT with a single plea.
1. Chapter 1

Plea

Chapter 1

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

Disclaimer: This story is based off of "Worm", an original web serial by Wildbow, all intellectual rights to and characters belong to Wildbow.

Special Thanks to Dakaath for his constructive criticism on this story.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

People moved out of my way as I stormily walked towards one of PRT's low security interrogation rooms, my days were already busy enough balancing the fight against the ABB, the Empire Eighty Eight and other troublemakers without having the time to spare to deal with the occasional bout of teen drama courtesy of the Wards.

But when a teen girl came to the lobby of their headquarters claiming to know the identity of one of the most problematic Wards in recent memory, had photographic evidence, and her only demand was to talk with someone 'normal'? Then I have no choice but to make time.

I arrived to the back of the interrogation room, separated from the girl only by a one way mirror, and talked to the PRT agent in charge. "What do we have?"

The man didn't bother to look up from his tablet as he talked. "Taylor Hebert, 10th grade student at Winslow High. Mother's dead, father's Dockworkers Union spokesperson. No criminal record, no known parahuman relations, was hospitalized this January after having a panic attack. We issued her a visitor's badge and haven't yet called her father. Do we?"

I looked at the girl; she was scared, and not in the same way a Ward did when he or she discovered that they had done something stupid and that a long session with Glenn was on the line. No, this was the kind of resigned fear of those criminals I had sent to the Birdcage, those who didn't have an escape specialist waiting for them and knew that the end was coming. I mentally upgraded the seriousness of the situation a notch, this wasn't going away with a vague threat and a signed picture of Dauntless.

"No, she came here voluntarily and she's not under arrest yet. Let's hear her out without concerned parents or annoying lawyers first."

After saying that I went to the white room where the girl was quietly waiting and sat down in front of her without saying a word, only the sound of a single fly trapped in the room breaking the oppressing silence.

I keep my silence a full minute, letting her stew, daring her to say the first word but I understood that this wasn't going to make her any more nervous that she already was, so finally I introduced myself. "Miss Hebert, I'm Emily Piggot, Director of Brockton Bay's Parahuman Response Team. Can you tell me what you are doing here instead of being in school?"

"I just didn't want to run into her here." She whispered.

"Of Sophia Hess you mean. Shadow Stalker, but you know that already. Do you know of the many laws that protect the privacy of PRT affiliated parahumans?" A shy nod was her answer. "Now can you tell me how did you learn of this little piece of information?" The fly in the wall started a frantic and irritating flight in the room, but the girl didn't seem to notice.

"I was keeping track of them, of Sophia and Madison and Emma," I couldn't recognize two of the names of course, but I wasn't about to ask and cut her in the middle of her explanation, "didn't want to get ambushed the way home, not again. Then she ducked into an alley and I… saw her turn into a shadow."

'Shadow Stalker using her powers without checking her six first? I'm giving her six months of punishment duties.' I thought, and when the fly near me once more I had to resist the impulse of swatting it with my PRT issued Tablet while imagining it was Shadow Stalker.

"The next days I kept following her, until I found out about her being Shadow Stalker. Then I understood, why the school did nothing, why all the teachers turn a blind eye towards the bullying, why Emma…" She took a moment or two to visibly calm down. At least that damn fly stopped buzzing around.

"So you decided to get some blurry pictures of her in an old Polaroid, add a Facebook image and a picture from the school's yearbook for reference and came here with the only originals. Tell me Miss Herbert, what do you expect me to do? Because right now you have given me all I need to suppress this indefinitely."

"I know. I could have gone to the news with this, the E-Mails she sends to me, and the notebook with my notes, or I could just send a letter to anyone of Empire Eighty Eight, or the Azn Bad Boys or I don't know Über and Leet." I frowned at that, despite her words I couldn't hear any implicit threat, which was admirable considering the circumstances.

That damn fly that was becoming the bane of this particular meeting was now crashing against the one way mirror time after time, but luckily it suddenly calmed down just as the girl restarted her narrative, allowing me to pay full attention to it. "I could, but I understand that even if I wasn't caught there would be consequences, anyone could attack her as Sophia, or could attack her family, or could go against the school or something just as bad. I'm better than that, or at least I hope I am. I don't want revenge, I just want it to stop." The girl just looked weary, defeated as she said those words. Even then by this point she had already earned a measure of respect from me, something that most Wards didn't earn until long pass their graduation to the Protectorate.

I suppressed a groan, I really didn't like working all the time with children and teens, and this time even I could see that my next words could break this girl. "When a new Ward is introduced into the school system the principal receives an official letter, not directly from us but from the Department of Justice, telling the school that said Ward is cooperating in an ongoing investigation and that due to the nature of the investigation they will have to miss classes at irregular intervals and that detentions are not possible, also I those letters we ask for leniency in minor misconduct incidents mostly due to the stress a hero suffers in the line of duty…"

"… I see, sorry for wasting your time." The girl Taylor made a motion to rise from her seat and leave, but halted when I did a stopping gesture with my hand. "…however Miss Herbert, Taylor, they're supposed to report any and all incidents as soon as they occur, members of the Wards are supposed to be under constant mental evaluation to make sure they're coping with their responsibilities, and in the case it is necessary to impart discipline as needed. At Arcadia High those instances are always tagged and reported back to us, even if they're only suspicions, at Winslow it seems that we need to have a serious chat with the faculty about it. Have you done any official report at all about the situation?"

"It happened last month. I went to my locker, and well, they'd obviously raided the bins from the girl's bathrooms or something, because they'd piled used pads and tampons into my locker. Almost filled it." Her eyes were the same I had seen during my years in the PRT in the face of many soldiers and more than a few capes, simply haunted. "It was pretty obvious that they had done it before the school closed for Christmas, by the smell alone. I bent over to throw up, right there in a crowded hallway, everyone watching. Before I could recover or stop losing my breakfast, someone grabbed me by the hair, hard enough it hurt, and shoved me into the locker, and then they shut and locked it. I panicked, freaked out, cooped inside there with the rotten smell and my own puke…" She was crying, and it took a moment for her to start the narrative again, although I could see in her face that she was letting something out,

"I don't remember when they let me out, just that I had to be taken to the hospital, I know the school paid the bills so it should at least be in record, but there were no witnesses willing to talk. I never wound up telling my dad about the main group of bullies. Maybe I should have, I dunno."

"And Miss Hess is one of those bullies, right? Well, that is a problem, but is more than enough for me to start investigating these allegations," those would have been empty words with any other of the Wards, but Shadow Stalker's plea bargain meant that the Right of Privacy was rather a privilege, and an easily revoked one at that. "And I promise you that if any of them is true, then I will find out and she will be harshly deal with." If she was even an accessory to the assault then it was as much of a breach of her parole as if she had used lethal weapons again and in that case I was going to throw her straight to juvenile hall.

At least she looked as if she was reassured by the last part, maybe because she really wanted to believe that, maybe because for once I was telling the truth. It would be bad for morale to throw her out of the Wards, but rather contain the situation now than to wait until she did something worse in the field. Neither of them had anything more to say, and silence once more permeated the room, but this time was a little less oppressive, even with that fly still buzzing behind me…

With that a suspicion that had been growing on the back of my mind during the entire meeting consolidated into a theory. If I was wrong then I would need to do a lot of silly sounding explanations, and regardless of the outcome the officer behind the glass would probably make sure that it would be the topic of choice for the headquarters for the entire month.

I used my best command voice, the one from my times as a PRT Assault Commander, the one voice that didn't demand obedience as much as considered it an inevitable consequence. "Taylor, get that damn fly on the table and make it to stay put!" Just as her face was showing her shock at the order the fly obediently zoomed from the back of the room and landed right in front of my finger. I flicked at it, but the insect didn´t fly even when prodded.

A Master 1 at the very minimum, and now that the initial shock was fading I could see that she knew what she tensing in an obvious fight or flight reaction. I cut that as fast as I could out of professionalism and a measure of self-preservation. "Taylor, you're not in trouble, although it is highly encouraged to report a parahuman skill when entering the building is not obligatory for visitors to do so, and your identity is protected by law unless you commit a felony; so calm down."

She stopped looking as if she was about to run and the lack of alarms and armed PRT officers breaking the door meant that the man behind the glass cooler kept his cool as well.

Now I needed specifics to see how big the bullet I just dodged was. "I guess that's how you could get the information about Miss Hess. Is that lone fly the only thing you can do?"

"Umm, no; I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell. But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don't have shells. I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains, I can see, smell and taste what they do but unless is tactile most of the time the information is jumbled and I can make sense of it, too different from us I think. And I can do it up to 400 yards give or take."

'So Master 1 or 2, and maybe Thinker 1' I did a rough calculation of her power, "How many can you control at the same time?"

"I don't know, last week I tried to gather as many as I could. I got to 53,269 before the swarm became too noticeable, but I didn't feel as I reached my limit even then." I revised my initial estimations by four or five levels and decided on a course of action.

"Miss Hebert, since I have knowledge of your identity in an official capacity I need to fill the appropriate reports, since you're a minor that means I'm forced by law to make your father aware of your abilities. Due to time constrains filling the paperwork is probably going to take a while, so if he doesn't know yet then you got until nightfall. I would recommend you to voluntarily register and accept an evaluation and classification of your parahuman skills, it is not obligatory but it carries many legal and economic advantages. You can call me at these numbers and I'll get an agent to carry the necessary information as well as a Non-Disclosure Agreement about Sophia Hess identity. And with regard of the original reason of your visit I assure you that Miss Hess is going to stop with her shameful behavior, one way or another."

With that I shook her hand and allow her to leave. I needed to carry on an investigation on a renegade Ward.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **


	2. Chapter 2

Plea

Chapter 2

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

Disclaimer: This story is based off of "Worm", an original web serial by Wildbow, all intellectual rights to and characters belong to Wildbow.

Special Thanks to Dakaath for his constructive criticism on this story.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

As I walked back to my office I reviewed the available options. The first one and the one I would have used if the girl came here with the intention of blackmailing us would be to just twist her arm with the wide array of legal options in my hands and shut her mouth for the foreseeable future. That would be my own superiors first choice too, no matter how distasteful is Shadow Stalker she's still one more body to throw to the front lines so many of her little sins are usually forgiven, far more than I admitted to Miss Herbert.

For once I'm glad that the other part is a parahuman too, that gives me far more options and I can justify them as getting into her good graces. I could just pull some strings and quietly get her into Arcadia High, if what she said about the number and range of bugs she could control is true then she has a high level Master classification and just as important she has shadowed Hess and documented her secret identity without being noticed.

To get her into Arcadia would allow us to properly train her before her debut on the Wards bypassing the usual game of guess the superhero. Even if she decided to stay rogue there are many uses for a surveillance specialist who owed us a favor.

Regardless of what I do with Herbert I'm investigating the chronic bullying, because once I take her favorite victim she might feel compelled to direct her attention against Vista or some other Ward, and in the field those kinds of actions can easily translate into friendly fire.

I hate those capes that believe humans are toys for their personal amusement. Like Nilbog.

I took my phone and started making calls. "Green, put your ADA hat on and call Winslow High, get me the full records of Taylor Herbert and Sophia Hess. Don't bother with being polite, rattle their cages and throw the word bully, see what else you get." To his credit the questions he asked were relevant and to the point so I gave him a slightly more elaborate explanation and sent him on his way.

My next call was to the IT people, I told them to vacuum Shadow Stalker's computer and cell phone and to correlate them with the e-mail addresses that Hebert gave me. Finally a third call to Legal to prepare the warrants as needed, something far easier with Sophia Hess than with any other Ward due to the specifics of her deal with the prosecution that forced her into my lap in the first place.

After that I throw myself back to the latest reports of Kaiser's most recent recruiting efforts.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

It took less than two hours for the first results to be in my computer's desktop alongside a note from the IT Department.

'As instructed all computing devices registered to Sophia Hess/Shadow Stalker have been checked. No unusual activity in Ward's Computer network, no unauthorized uses on PRT issue phone, home computer offline and currently inaccessible.' I didn't have time to be disappointed before I read the next part of the mail. 'However the lack of use of company phone for personal matters let us to track SS social media activity to a phone registered to Alan Barnes, father to an Emma Barnes who incidentally we independently connected to the one of the flagged E-Mail addresses (see Annexed files). A comparison of the activity of the cell phone in question put it at least in 6 occasions in near proximity to Shadow Stalker´s patrol route; waiting Legal to expand warrant to cover this device before taking any more measures.'

I allowed myself a smile, my men weren't tinkers or thinkers, they had earned their knowledge and skills the hard way through years of study and experience, and even if this was small and almost inconsequential compared to the trouble that the different gangs were causing on my city, the initiative shown was something to be proud of. I opened the files recovered from Barnes. Hurtful vicious and childish, and some of the details implied that she had feinted friendship with Taylor. I dragged the files to the paper bin, a shame that for her I lack both a warrant and jurisdiction to do something about it.

Two hours later I had the full unabridged mails in my desk. "I want Aegis and Armsmaster in my office in the next hour. Tell them to switch patrols if necessary."

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

"Director Piggot. Ma'am." Aegis arrived a little earlier than strictly necessary, probably curious about the reasons why I summoned him in so abruptly.

I only nodded with my head before getting back to work, as far as I'm concerned getting early to a meeting is almost as wasteful as getting late, it means that my time must be subordinate to the time of others, and that won't do. That's a problem that I've never had with Armsmaster who once more arrives just in time.

"Good afternoon, earlier this day I was made aware of a discipline problem with Shadow Stalker's civilian identity, this are selected extracts of some of her mail that surfaced during the investigation. The names of third parties are blacked out." I passed two identical stacks of paper with the relevant papers.

"Christ." And Aegis wasn't over the first page yet. The boy with his power set couldn't help but to be a borderline masochist, using his own injuries as the punchline of poorly thought jokes during debrief sessions and allowing his teammates to use full contact to practice lethal maneuvers and in some cases, such as Shadow Stalker, to relief stress; but the sadism inherent on the pages he is reading is probably beyond he can stomach.

"I don't see the problem, as far as I have seen, with the exception of the locker incident, she is breaking no laws nor misusing her powers, and it seems that there weren't any official reports from the school." No matter how good a tinker and fighter Armsmaster is, he will always be a poor leader if he can't understand what is wrong with giving that kind of answer in front of Aegis.

"What? No, I want her out of my team." Just the reaction I was expecting. Usually I force people to follow my lead during this kind of meetings, but from time to time it is better to let the subordinates to vent without me taking one side or another, as long as the discussion is taking the direction I want of course.

"If the discipline issue is so bad we can get the school to segregate her from the problematic elements of her grade and quietly get her some counseling. No need to waste her combat abilities."

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have to fight alongside her and hope she covers your back instead of shooting at it. I don't see how we can trust her, not if she's willing to side with people that betray their friends for entertainment."

"She is a valuable asset and the good she has done in the streets compensates her unfortunate behavior." I mentally translated, 'In other words you don't want the stigma of failing to rehabilitate her.' For me politics is an unfortunate side effect of my job, a job that was given to me when my team fell prey to the same politics. For Armsmaster on the other hand politics is the only path to greater power in the Protectorate so he searches it with barely concealed desperation. And for that despite his exemplary record he has never earned my respect and he never will.

"Before you take a decision Armsmaster there is one more E-mail we intercepted between her and a friend, and I believe you're not going to be as accepting of her behavior." I passed him one last sheet of paper and waited to see him react.

"Yes, it seems that Shadow Stalker has been doing a little hunting on her own. For some reason three days ago she seems to have fought Grue, who she has been explicitly ordered not to engage unless necessary and to ask for backup as soon as possible. So you understand how confused am I to find out about it in a mail to the same friend she has been pairing to bully people at her school instead of raising her scores high enough to get into Arcadia so we can coordinate her schedule with the rest of the team."

"Yes Director I do." I could almost hear the grinding of his teeth at the whole issue, he was a bad leader, but as a commander he was one of the bests, and he knew the risks of insubordination in the field.

"I'm afraid I'm a believer in punishment, when punishment is due, but other than this mail I have no hard evidence of this last infraction, yet. So I'm going to order a disciplinary review for Sophia Hess and the PRT is issuing warrants for both her house and the house of her accomplice."

Depending of what we find we either handle the discipline issue locally, get her out of school and give her online courses to fill the education requirements and put her into close surveillance in the field by a local Protectorate volunteer as long as one steps forward," 'And I'm going to make sure is not Dauntless' I thought, it was something of an open secret that the newest star of the Brockton Bay Protectorate was getting some of the worst details a cape could get with them being considered punishment and babysitting Shadow Stalker might become a career killer if she messed up again, "remit her to the Protectorate HQ for reassignment to a team with harsher standards of discipline, or simply declare the plea null and void and ship her to Juvenile Hall."

I let them contemplate those options for a moment before continuing. "Aegis, does she has patrol tonight?"

"No Ma'am, tonight she got monitor duty." I could almost feel his anger. A leader cannot always let his emotions show so openly especially in delicate issues like this one that might take weeks or even months to come to a head. Luckily for him the nature of the infractions meant that, one way or another, the resolution of this issue will be swift, but he shouldn't expect this to always be the case.

"Replace her; I want to have a talk with her in two hours, which is incidentally when my men are executing the search warrants. Armsmaster I want her to be reassuringly solid when we have our little chat."

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

Upon a quite reasonable complain from skywiseskychan that the chapter was a little too low I added a bit of the next part to give it a little more substance.


End file.
